Step 6: Allow 1 Offering Call-To-Action to Simmer

Welcome to Step 6 of the 10 Week Blogging Success Recipe! As we’ve been breaking down the 8 steps of the recipe into individual posts you’ve learned about writing blog posts, promoting those blog posts through social media and email marketing, as well as how to repurpose your blog content into an offering you share on your website. Hopefully you’re well on your way to jump-starting your blogging efforts. If you would like to review the entire recipe or are interested in a particular step, the links below will direct you where you want to go.

What is a call-to-action?

Similar to the landing page for your offering, a call-to-action, or CTA, is another one of the supporting materials needed to promote your offering. However, the goal of a CTA is to drive people to your landing page. Once visitors are on the landing page the goal is to entice them to actually download the offering.

When creating your call-to-action, put yourself in the mindset of your website visitors. Craft the CTA keeping in mind what a visitor would want to know or see to decide if they need the e-book offering. If you persuade them to click on the CTA using key content and eye-catching imagery, your CTA will achieve its goal of driving visitors to the landing page.

Call-To-Action Elements

There are 4 main components of a CTA:

1. Opening – Why You Need It

Write one sentence, using action language, describing why someone would need the offering. Think about the reason you created the offering in the first place…What was the problem you were trying to solve for your audience? What goal were you trying to help them reach? Answering those questions will guide your opening.

2. Body – What You Get

Use this space on the CTA to be specific about what people will get from downloading the offering. Go back to the text you wrote on the offering landing page. You can take that content and rework it into a shorter version to use on the CTA.

3. Button

In addition to existing as the part of the CTA that links out to the landing page for the offering, the button displays an actionable phrase encouraging people to click. The text can be as simple as Download Free E-Book.

4. Alternative Link (optional)

Including an alternative link on a CTA is not required but it does give your visitors a second option or path to take if they don’t feel ready for the offering you’re promoting.

Call-To-Action Best Practices

If CTAs are a new concept for you then these 9 best practices are sure to guide you in the right direction.

1. Make it Big

Size really does matter when it comes to cooking up an effective CTA. Take a look at the example CTA below to see how big we display them on our website. A CTA needs to be big enough for people to actually notice it. If they can’t see it, they won’t click on it and therefore won’t be able to download your offering.

2. Make it Obvious

Visitors to your site should know exactly what you want them to do when they see a call-to-action. CTAs on the MayeCreate site are buttons, making it obvious to visitors that they should click on them. The example CTA below has a yellow button for people to click on if they wish to download our free Measuring Email Marketing e-book.

3. Use Action Language

Use action language to describe the offering on the CTA just as you learned to use action language on the landing page in Step 5. Passive language doesn’t persuade people to click, but verbs do. Notice how every sentence in the example CTA below starts with a verb.

4. Offer a Clear Value Proposition

People will be more likely to click on your CTA if they understand a benefit of downloading the offering upfront. Place text on your CTA addressing the fact that you have a solution to their problems or challenges.

5. Be Specific

Despite the limited room available for text on a CTA, the sentence or two you do include should be very specific. It’s a fairly simple chain of events:

Present Details Upfront

Display Convincing CTA

Invite People to Click

Direct Clickers to Landing Page

Persuade Visitors to Download

Remember, a CTA is the first chance you have to convince visitors they need to download your offering. If you can’t grab their attention here by presenting details about the offering then they may not download it.

6. Create Urgency

Action words help to create urgency in your CTAs.

You obviously want your website visitors to download your offering, so encourage them to do it on this visit instead of one in the future. Create urgency and let them know you want them to have access to the offering right now by using phrases like the following on your CTA:

Click Now

Download Now

Sign Up Now

7. Reduce Anxiety

Communicating a message in a strong, powerful way can sometimes induce anxiety in the reader. They may feel pressured to download something they’re not 100% sure they need or are ready for. You can reduce this anxiety by including a link to a second offer in the CTA, directing them to either a lower funnel offering or just asking them to visit your blog. Giving visitors another option increases the chance of them at least taking some valuable action instead of just abandoning your site altogether.

8. Link the CTA

If you don’t link the CTA to the corresponding landing page for the offering, the CTA cannot achieve its goal of driving traffic to the landing page.

9. Use it Everywhere

Maximize the chances of the CTA being clicked on by placing it on multiple pages of your website. If you only have one offering, you’re going to use the same CTA at the bottom of every blog post you have. Once you create more offerings and therefore have more CTAs, you can alternate the CTAs used at the bottom of your posts.